The Iranian intelligence minister, who was speaking before the sermons of the Friday Prayers, said Iran is in total intelligence command of enemy activities, and mentioned a number of operations by Iranian intelligence forces successfully thwarting planned bomb attacks or other attempted acts of sabotage.

“[Foreign] intelligence services, mainly [those of] the US and Israel, as well as some regional intelligence services do everything they can to challenge the country (Iran)’s exemplary security somewhere (in the country) so that the sound of some explosion is also heard inside Iran, just as the sound of blasts and the smell of gunpowder and the color of blood upset all the people in our neighboring countries,” Alavi said.

However, he said, despite all the assistance that terrorist groups receive from enemy intelligence services, they have not been successful so far.

“This is no coincidence; and convergence and cooperation and the pooling of resources by intelligence, military and security forces of the Islamic Republic as well as judicial organizations led to the foiling of enemy plots,” the Iranian intelligence minister said.

Foiled terror attacks in Tehran, Mashhad, Qom

Alavi specifically referred to a number of terrorist plots foiled by Iranian intelligence forces, including a planned bombing plot in the Iranian northeastern city of Mashhad, a poisoning plot in the capital, Tehran, and a bombing plot in the central city of Qom.

There is not a single day when Iranian intelligence forces do not discover and foil a conspiracy, he said.The comments by the Iranian intelligence minister come as the Takfiri ISIL terrorist group is actively operating in Iraq – an immediate neighbor of Iran to the west – and Syria. The group is engaged in a campaign of terror and killing in the two Arab countries.

There are reports that ISIL is also recruiting forces in Afghanistan, another Iranian neighbor.